Greville Fane [First American Appearance] by James, Henry [Trollope, Anthony] - 1892

New York, 1892. First American edition. Stapled Wrappers. Very Good. A Very Good copy of the true first American edition, first printing, of this Henry James short story appearing in the October 1, 1892 and October 8, 1892 issues of the Illustrated News of the World, printed from the Original Blocks of the Illustrated London news where the true first UK edition of this short story appeared in two parts during September 1892. "Greville Fane" first appeared in book form in "The Real Thing and Other Tales" in 1893. The tale was one of several short stories written by James while he sought to become successful in writing for the Stage, during which period he determined to write only short stories and not novels so that he could focus his time and energy on his theatrical efforts -- a determination which did not result in success in the theatre but which did produce some nice short stories. "Greville Fane" shows an unnamed writer who is asked to produce a tactful obituary of another author, Mrs. Stormer, a commercial success who produced three books a year under the name Greville Fane -- and who, without any success whatsoever, sought to make her son into an author. Of Mrs. Stormer the obituary writer states: "She could invent stories by the yard, but she couldn’t write a page of English. She went down to her grave without suspecting that though she had contributed volumes to the diversion of her contemporaries she had not contributed a sentence to the language." The tale was James' comment on the Victorian author Anthony Trollope, a writer known for his industry who attempted to establish his son Frederic as an author -- an attempt which ended in Frederic's becoming a failed sheep farmer in Australia. James' view of Trollope was mixed but, on the whole, leans toward unfavorable. Each of the two issues here is in Very Good condition and retains its green cover -- which has come loose from the staples on the October 1 issue. Copies of both the London World News and the Illustrated World News are, in our experience, exceedingly scarce and most copies likely were discarded after reading or have been otherwise been lost to time. We doubt that many examples of this true first printing of the tale, whether English or American and whether partial or complete, have survived. A RARE COMPLETE COPY OF THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF THIS NOTABLE HENRY JAMES TALE.